My almost 8 month old DS will not eat lumps or anything that is the slightest bit thick! He will gag until it all comes back up again( sorry)
All that he will accept is pureed baby food. I am going out of my mind trying to think of solutions. I would think that fresh veg would be much healthier for him than the tinned stuff and he also need to learn how to chew for speech development. He has 5 teeth ( if that helps)
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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i wouldn't stress too much bec. you know you can puree your own fresh veg, you just need one of those stick blenders (from about $20 in the supermarket) otherwise you can try the motherly cubes in the freezer section - i love them! emelia only gets them every day or two so they don't work out too expensive for us (they're $8 for about 40) and they are made from fresh ingredients.

i have tried motherly cubes and he wont have them. i also puree my veg in a blender. he still gags.

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Have you tried pushing home cooked veg puree thru a sieve? For the first month Alex was eating solids she would cope with Bamix-ed veg except potato which had to be super smooth or she wouldn't eat it.

Steph
DD Alex (March 04)

Some babies gag less if they're "in control" of the lumpy food (I've heard). What about offering steamed carrot or zucchini sticks? He can hold them and put them in his mouth to suck on, even if he doesn't chew.

Bec, I dont know if im going to be any help or not, i can only tell you what i did with Aiden when going through the same thing. I found that when he was gagging and not taking anything apart from purreed pumpkin it was because of his teeth and his gums were sore. Everday i would just offer something like steamed vege sticks or a milk arrowroot bickie, something that he was in control of. Somedays he wouldnt touch it, other days he would gag and other days no problems, but eventually when the teething settled down he was fine. I tried not to stress about it, he was getting something from the pumpkin and was still having his bottles. I just had to sit back, relax and let him do it when he was ready not when a nurse or a book told me. I say just keep going with what he likes, offer different things to him and let him do it in his own time....ever seen a normal healthy adult eat nothing but pureed baby food ???
I hope that helps, if not ignore everything i said

Cheryl
DS: Aiden James 03/08/04

Yup - Lara's got the solution alright! Jessica will eat smoothly pureed food (it has to go through the processor rather than the stick blender), solids off my chopsticks if we're eating vietnamese, and anything off the floor - nothing in between.

Oh, and Bellamy's rusks. She'll suck and graze on one of those for hours.

I've also noticed that food intake varies according to gum soreness.

Kristen

I had a bit of a think in the shower this morning ( Jason was home that was why i had time to think in the shower ) anyway with Aiden i also started to add a little creamed corn into his normal food when introducing lumps. Not a lot to start with but enough to have a few lumps and because it was sweet he enjoyed it. I just added it to his normal pureed food or the jar of baby food. I also did the same thing with banana in his custard, it just made it slightly lumpier at first, over time i increased the lumps. Also i gave him a sip of water about every second mouthful, or every mouthful if he needed it. Helps wash it down i guess. Now he just grabs the cup when he needs to while eating. It was only when he turned about 9 months that all this seemed to come together.

Cheryl
DS: Aiden James 03/08/04

Thanks........cheryl i remember you saying the drink of water but he wont have thta either. Im sure that it will all fall into place when he is ready. He loves arrowroot bikkis but im scared that he will swollow a big chunk as he tends to bit chunks off.....

Maybe i should just put his food on the floor lol

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Last night i gave him my home made "pureed" vegies and he still gagged. I mixed it with some tinned pureed pumpkin but the same thing still happened. I was watching him eat his food and discovered that he was not chewing or swishing the food around in his mouth first, he was swalowing it in one go!
So i thought that i would just spoon the food in right at the front of his mouth and then he has no choice but to swish it around first and it worked!!! Now all i have to do is see if it works with the lumpier foods.

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Thats great Bec, sometimes its just a matter of finding a "trick" that just works for you, hopefully it keeps working on lumpier food.

Cheryl
DS: Aiden James 03/08/04

Just had another thought.... does he regularly watch other people eating? I remember when I was home with Sophia, I often ate while she was napping so I wouldn't be interrupted.... but of course she learned to chew and hold a spoon and drink from a cup much quicker when she could see how I do it.

And don't panic. I know a 5'10" 100kg bloke who didn't have anything but breastmilk til 13mths.